The first in a wave of US Gulf Coast ethane cracker projects is slated to start up in the first quarter of 2017 when Occidental Petroleum Corp. and MexiChem’s new joint-venture 550,000 mt/year project near Corpus Christi, Texas, wraps up commissioning by mid-January. Mexichem Chief Executive Antonio Carrillo said the plant will ramp up throughout 2017, reaching 100% capacity in late 2017.

If the round of second-quarter upstream conference calls showed anything, it was that operators have been humdingers in recent months: incredibly competitive, ruggedly hard-working and totally determined to match their operating costs to slipping oil prices, with a bit left over for profit.

And they have succeeded beyond their most extravagant forecasts. The cost of producing the once-perceived “high-priced” unconventional oil patch has now fallen, in some cases, to per-barrel breakeven prices pretty much on par with an extra-large delivered pizza with all the works, including tip.